


copy

by aerynlallaboso



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Introspection, i'm on a Roll today apparently, mentions of others (Tsunade and Hashirama Senju), possibly slightly disturbing imagery??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2014-09-18
Packaged: 2018-02-17 20:43:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2322536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerynlallaboso/pseuds/aerynlallaboso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All anybody ever heard was <i>clone</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





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The first time he'd met Lady Tsunade Senju, the new Fifth Hokage, he'd been wearing his mask. She'd told him to take it off, and studied his face closely for a long time.

He'd known what she was searching for - everyone looked for it, at first. Nobody understand the scientific jargon tied up in what had been done to him as a child: he was a _genetic_ clone, cells infused with the deoxyribonucleic acid of Hashirama Senju a few years after his birth, but all anybody ever heard was _clone_ , and they looked for the First's face along with his abilities.

"You don't look like my grandfather," Tsunade had said thoughtfully.

He'd smiled tightly. "No, my lady. I have the Lord First Hokage's wood release, nothing more."

People would ask him - do you remember what fighting Madara Uchiha was like, huh? and laugh as if he hadn't heard it all before. He'd explain, carefully and politely, that he wasn't the First, but they'd keep making jokes.

Sometimes, when he was younger, he had looked up at the stone face of the First Hokage from the tall tree on the very edge of the Root compound's boundaries and touched his own face, and been scared that he might start to look like that as he got older. That he might lose _his eyes_ and _his_ nose and _his_ mouth and then nobody would be able to tell him from Hashirama Senju-

Small Kinoe had shaken his head and fought back the fear, along with everything else.

He hadn't lost that childish terror when he left Root; it grew stronger as he grew as a person, finding his own identity among his new comrades. All his nightmares, if not of the tank, consisted of losing his new self: his former mentor creeping in and taking him back to Root, making him Kinoe again - returning to the tree to find Yukimi dead or in a tank or telling him that she knows he's not Tenzo, he's a _liar_ , an imposter - Orochimaru laughing at him immobile on a table, his ANBU tattoo replaced by a subject number - and looking in the mirror only to see Hashirama Senju looking back.

Once or twice, when he was sure there was nobody around, he'd screamed at the First's carved face, yelled until his lungs burnt, blamed it for everything that had happened to him. Hating Hashirama was carthartic for five minutes or so.

Tenzo avoided the people who made those jokes, after a while.

He much preferred the company of people who treated him like a real person: one whose name didn't sound remotely like Hashirama, one who had had parents and maybe brothers and sisters, even if he didn't remember them, one who had thoughts and feelings and preferences of his own.

The wood release didn't really help with any of this, of course. Every jutsu he used had been devised by the First Hokage; every time he demonstrated his abilities, he was being judged against Hashirama and his achievements. He could grow a tree taller than the Hokage's tower - Hashirama could have blanketed the village in a forest! He could create a wooden dragon - Hashirama could have created ten at a time!

Whenever he trained, he practiced refining the First's jutsus, customising them and adding his own flair. The First Hokage had had little interest in architecture. Tenzo devoured books on it and practiced making houses and structures with intricate detail, pouring his energy into every wooden carving along the walls.

"Very good, child," the advisors would say, even when he reached his twenty-second birthday and his five-hundreth demonstration of the power he wielded and Kakashi left the ANBU and someone put a jutsu on him to make him look like Hashirama for a stupid asinine prank and he _screamed_ when he woke up and saw it, clawed at his own face as if Tenzo was disappearing right before his eyes-

That had been a bad day. He doesn't have many, especially nowadays, with Kakashi back and the rest of Team Seven around to reassure him that he is a real person with a real place with real friends, not just an incomplete copy of a man long-dead.

Even so, he still touches his face unconsciously when he passes by mirrors, still avoids history books about the reign of the First Hokage. He still dreams about the tank.

"Ah," Tsunade'd said, meeting his eyes. "You definitely look like you have a better poker face than he did."

Tenzo had blinked, and been unable to stop his mouth twitching into a real smile. "I'll take that as a compliment, my lady."


End file.
